1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus having a function of printing index images and associating file information corresponding to a plurality of files.
2. Related Art
Conventionally, image forming apparatuses having a function of printing index images have been known. An example of the index image printing function is disclosed in Japanese Patent Provisional Publication No. P2000-332985A (hereinafter, referred to as '985 publication). According to a method of printing the index images disclosed in '985 publication, a plurality of image data files stored in the same folder are selected, and then, setting of a size of one index image, setting of attribution printing information, and setting of fonts and printer, if necessary, are made. Then, the selected images are converted to index images, arranged in accordance with a predetermined layout automatically, and printed together with the attribution (associating) information. The attribution information may include a file name, title of the image data, and file update date/time for each image data file. Therefore, according to the index printing described in '985 publication, there is not necessary for a user to perform a relatively complicated process of setting a layout of the index images and/or the attribution printing information.
In some cases, however, the user need to refer to a file name to identify a desired file from among a plurality of files of which index images are arranged on one sheet. For example, when an index image is created based on a first page of a text document, only a train of dots corresponding to a text may be shown on the index image and the user may not be able to distinguish between such images. In another example, when revised versions of a certain document, such as a report, are made, the first page thereof may be unchanged and only part of its contents are revised. In such a case, the index images created based on the first page of such revised versions of the same report would be the same, and, typically, the file names differentiated by adding a revision number at the end of the file name. As above, if the user cannot identify the desired file from the index images, the user may refer to the file names.
However, according to the conventional image forming apparatus employing the index image printing method, as disclosed in '985 publication, if the file name is relatively long, the entire file name cannot be printed on a printing sheet when the index image is printed. In such a case, the user cannot identify a desired file based on the file name, and has to print each document itself to check the contents thereof.